VITER — Diva Ruzha (review)

VITER — Diva Ruzha album cover Split · 2011 · Folk Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Vehemency
Last year when Viter unleashed their debut Dzherelo, I was quite astonished. And now, seeing that a split release with Kings & Beggars was released, I was more than eager to see in which direction they would go from the EP, though I guess that Diva Ruzha is not any indicator, as this split is an experimental effort comprising specific old traditional songs enhanced in the two bands’ hands. On three of the tracks, both bands collaborate together, and they both have also their own songs.

Diva Ruzha begins with the eponymous song that is the definite highlight of the split, combining Kings & Beggars’ folk instrumentation and Viter’s metal. But the metal is in minor role (except one brief section of down-tuned death metal riffage), the focus is on the beautiful, repetitive melody pattern sung in both male and female vocals. It’s epic as hell, and endures its lengthy 7-minute playing time. Kings & Beggars track ”Ai Vis Lo Lop” is up next, once again revolving around simple vocal pattern which is this time a little more upbeat. Acoustic string instruments are put to great use on this song, sounding so wooden and natural.

”Vänner och Fränder” gets back to the same song the EP started with, this time being a more calmful, slower and misty version, sung in Swedish as the very original piece - and it works as well as the preceding version. Skyforger cover ”Migla, Migla, Rasa, Rasa” is a beautiful, minimal and wistful song with simple percussion, the song culminating into prominent flute melodies. ”Chycheri”, a Viter track, concludes Diva Ruzha in very upbeat and almost tongue-in-cheek spirit which kind of ruins it for me, and I personally think that the EP would have had a better whole if this circus-like piece was excluded, but oh well - the four tracks before it are so good that I can simply skip this one every time.

Throughout the record, a plethora of different traditional instruments are played in every corner, so there’s a lot to spot from Diva Ruzha’s lush soundscape. The melodies are catchy and don’t take a great deal of time to sink into the listener, which is okay considering that this is probably a one-time experimentation lasting mere 23 minutes, and very successful minutes those are (excluding the last three). If you want a dominant presence of metal in your folk, then Diva Ruzha might be a disappointment, because the record rarely goes into heavy territories, but those who are interested in the use of traditional instruments in traditional folk songs, spiced with just a touch of metal, I can’t think of a better relase than Diva Ruzha right now. It’s not as consistent and brilliant as Dzherelo, but worth the money of anyone who enjoyed that previous EP.
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